Even Birch seems to give up a little this issue, which introduces a bunch of new things—not just new characters, but new creatures—for David Kim to contend with. Birch’s faces look unfinished, like he skipped inking them because he had to much other stuff to do.

There’s only a little stuff with Kim this issue; he gets to beat up the villain and show off his superpowers again. By the end, Rozum is already introducing more stuff for the next issue.

Xombi doesn’t work in any traditional sense—it’s like Rozum had an idea for the big story and just used his protagonist to tell that story. It’s an okay story (too many proper nouns to remember), but Rozum’s characters are really good and the dialogue’s funny.

It’s just not particularly compelling. Because he drops the reader into this preexisting situation, it’s impossible to really care about it.

At one point this issue, the Nun of the Above—who’s that nun I mentioned last time—tells one of the new cast members she’s never heard of him. My response is similar. I’m weary at trying to keep the cast straight. From the first five pages, Rozum has got five or six people moving through the issue.

He introduces two to six more by the end, depending how you want to count. It’s all very mystical, very supernatural… and has nothing to do with protagonist David Kim.

It’s impossible to discount the comic book. Xombi is a very good comic book; Birch’s art matches the script and the script is well written.

It’s just almost impossible to connect with. David Kim hasn’t even called his fiancée yet. We haven’t even established if people are going to call him David or something else.

Rozum’s dragging the reader through a mess.

J.J. Birch is the perfect artist for this book. He can even make cute little mechanical birds like mildly scary.

Rozum resolves his cliffhanger. Actually, it wasn’t a hard cliffhanger, but a soft one. There are no happy moments, no redemptive ones, no smiles.

Well, maybe some smiles. Here, Rozum introduces the supporting cast—and, yes, one of them is a nun—and he has a good time with them. They’re all meeting the protagonist, David Kim, for first time, but they’ve been around together. There’s bickering, there are inside jokes; it’s a great scene.

There’s some hints at the villains too, and it definitely seems as though Rozum is going to embrace the supernatural with the series, which is kind of strange. It’s about a science-based “superhero” who deals exclusively with magical antagonists. I’m sure Rozum can make it work.

But, the endless proper nouns are getting annoying.

There’s a way to end on a downer….

Wow.

Rozum moves between science and magic this issue. The science stuff basically just uses concepts the reader is likely familiar with—nanotechnology mostly—and shows how awesome it could be. The magic is a little different. It gives Rozum a lot of room to be creative. He also gets to have a ghost-busting nun—well, I’m hoping she’s a ghost-busting nun.

The issue takes place over a day, so the reader gets to know the protagonist through his new assistant. It’s an interesting kind of protagonist for a comic. He’s Asian, first of all, but he’s also old enough to have grey temples and he’s completely ordinary. He’s a former adjunct professor who’s still working on getting his Ph.D. In other words, he’s boring.

The ending rushes, but it makes the cliffhanger works even better.

It’s an amazing finish.